The Sprague Electric Company moved to North Adams in 1930 and for a time
was the largest single employer in the city. At its peak, Sprague
Electric employed over 12,000 people worldwide, including over 4,000 at
its North Adams facilities. With a population of just under 20,000,
North Adams became a "company town,"  and, for many years, the company
promoted the idea of a Sprague family of workers through the sponsorship
of a variety of social activities.  In 1938 the company began
publishing a company newsletter, the Sprague Log. Items in the Sprague
Log fell into two major categories: those that lauded loyalty to the
company and pride in a job well done, and those that promoted the happy
Sprague family through wedding and birth announcements, features on the
various Sprague athletic teams and countless family photographs. When
the company moved its headquarters out of North Adams in 1985, the
Sprague Log ceased publication. From 1938 to 1985, over 466 issues of
the Log were published. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the North
Adams Historical Society and the North Adams Public Library have pooled
their Log holdings to make a nearly complete run of the Sprague Log
available on the internet. Digitizing and microfilming the Logs was made
possible with funding from MCLA's Hardman Library Grant.

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